Linking Pathways from Perceived Absolute and Comparative Risk to Colorectal Cancer Screening Intention: Towards an Extended Cognitive Mediation Model

ABSTRACT

Digital media platforms are crucial in providing health information to the public, including learning about cancer prevention strategies. Although the Cognitive Mediation Model (CMM) is a sound theoretical framework for explaining the underpinning process of health knowledge acquisition, one important remaining gap is how individuals are motivated to process health information through different discussion-generated elaboration strategies. To better understand the knowledge acquisition process, this paper extends the CMM in the context of colorectal cancer prevention. We introduced perceived absolute risk and perceived comparative risk as two distinct risk assessments as the antecedents facilitating individuals’ attention to cancer information on digital media, two types of interpersonal communication as discussion-generated elaboration strategies, and two dimensions of knowledge assessment in our extended CMM. Based on a nationally representative online survey among 965 Chinese public, we found that two types of risk perception were positively associated with paying attention to colorectal cancer information on digital media, which in turn facilitated both types of interpersonal communication. However, information processing strategies differed in leading to cancer knowledge and screening intention. Only subjective knowledge was positively associated with colorectal screening intention. Our findings offered implications for the literature and health promotion practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive mediation model
• colorectal cancer
• interpersonal communication
• risk perception
• health knowledge
• cancer screening intention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. The factor loading values for measured item and correlation matrix (Appendix 2) are presented in the supplemental file.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thomas H. Zhang

Thomas H. Zhang is a Ph.D. student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests include cancer communication, health knowledge management, and message framing effects in health promotion.

Jen Sern Tham

Jen Sern Tham is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia. He does research in health and risk communication. He is the Director of the UPM-UNICEF C4D, a partnership program with THE United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Edmund W. J. Lee

Edmund W. J. Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University. His research focuses on developing health technologies to tackle health inequalities in order to understand and improve public health outcomes.

Moniza Waheed

Moniza Waheed is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Her research interests center around political communication, intercultural communication, and journalism studies.